A Curious Mind
by emotionless-robot
Summary: One-shot. Derek and Simon interact after Derek is taken in by the Bae's.


**This is my first foray into the DP universe... it's set after Derek gets taken in by Simon and Kit.**

**Disclaimer on profile.**

* * *

"Will you turn into a wolf now?"

Simon's curious face leaned in closer to Derek's, eyes wide with anticipation and wonder.

"No!" Derek squawked, scooting away from the other child. "Of course not!"

Simon pouted; he was obviously not pleased with the answer he was given.

"Why not? You're a werewolf, aren't you?"

"Yeah, but I can't turn into a wolf _yet_."

"… but you will sometime in the future?"

"Yes."

"Okay," Simon beamed, now pleased, "will you let me see when you do?"

Derek couldn't decide, but he figured it was best if Simon didn't see, and so he replied with a resounding, "No."

The blond-haired boy huffed and rolled his eyes, muttering about how cool it would have been to see someone change into a wolf. Derek felt bad for disappointing Simon. After all, Simon was supposed to be his new family, right? At least he was taking an interest, unlike the other werewolf children who just ignored him… so maybe he should ask Simon a question now?

"Can you do magic for me?"

"What! No way! I don't even know how to!" Simon said in disbelief. "I guess… I guess I won't be able to do that until later, too."

"Huh."

The boys were left at a standstill. While Derek was comfortable around Simon and Kit, he still wasn't sure how to talk to them without encountering these awkward silences that came up. Somehow, Kit knew how to keep a conversation going, but Simon got distracted easily and then Derek wasn't sure if he was supposed to keep talking or just leave Simon alone.

It was all too confusing for him.

Right now, Simon was munching on some crackers, gazing out the window at some birds. Derek was tempted to steal some of Simon's snack, but refrained, knowing that it was impolite to do so. As it turned out, he didn't need to worry about it, because Simon passed him the box without saying a word. They munched away happily, watching the birds in silence.

* * *

"Why don't you like watching TV?" Simon asked, arms crossed with a frustrated expression on his face.

Derek looked up from the book he was reading (or at least trying to), and shrugged his shoulders.

"Come on! That's not an answer! I want to know—why don't you like watching TV?"

"I guess because I wouldn't know what to watch…" Derek muttered, keeping his head down.

"That's silly," Simon declared, "I'll show you what to watch."

And so Derek got up and followed Simon to the living room, where they watched a cartoon about superheroes.

"I'm going to be a superhero one day," Simon announced.

Derek nodded his head, not understanding how that one was going to work.

"You can be my sidekick."

Derek nodded again.

* * *

"Do you like to play basketball?"

Derek wasn't startled by Simon's unending questions anymore, but he wasn't sure what the point of them was, to be honest.

At his helpless look though, Simon sighed and muttered, "Come on, I'll show you how to play. It's really easy. I think you'll like it."

Simon led him outside and showed him how to dribble the ball while still keeping control of it. Then, he demonstrated how to shoot the ball at the net, dunking it in expertly. He then passed the ball to Derek, who held it awkwardly in his hands, and they began to play a stop-and-go kind of game; stopping whenever Derek committed a foul, and going whenever Simon got tired of explaining to Derek what he had done wrong. Their game went on for an hour or so, before Kit called them in for dinner.

Derek decided that, despite Simon's bossiness during the game, he quite liked playing basketball.

* * *

"What do you want to be when you grow up?"

Simon's query stumped Derek for a moment, before he said, "I don't know. What do you want to be?"

"Well, besides a superhero, I wouldn't mind being a lawyer like my dad. He gets to save people in his own way, I guess, even if he doesn't fly around like Superman. But I bet he'd win a lot more cases if he did fly around like Superman, because no one would be able to beat him!"

Simon's excited tirade made Derek smile in appreciation for his enthusiasm. And then it faded as Simon returned to his original question.

"Well, if you can't decide what you want to be, then you have to decide what you like to do… so, what do you like to do?"

"I don't know… read?"

"Hmm…" Simon gave it some thought, resting his chin in his palm and screwing his eyes shut in concentration. "Maybe you could be a librarian?"

Derek scrunched his nose.

"Okay, then maybe you can be a lawyer, too! They get to read loads of stuff _all the time_!"

"Maybe, I guess." Derek conceded, still unsure of the conclusion Simon had reached.

"It's settled, Derek. We're both going to be lawyers when we're older! AND SUPERHEROES!"

Simon jumped up and ran around the room, pretending to fly as Derek quietly went back to reading his book.

* * *

"Why do you ask me all of these questions?"

Simon looked up at Derek thoughtfully and responded back, "What do you mean?"

"You're always coming up to me and asking me a bunch of stuff like if I like basketball or what I want to be when I grow up and I was just wondering… why?"

He shuffled awkwardly, having had to build up enough courage to approach Simon directly to get some answers. It had been bugging him, the mystery reason behind Simon's impromptu question-and-answer sessions. He wanted to know _why_ and he had decided that he wasn't leaving Simon alone until he got some answers.

"Well," Simon said, "I guess it's because I want to get to know you and stuff. I mean, you're living with us now, right? It's like, you're my brother or something and I've seen all these shows where brothers know everything about each other so I decided to get to know everything about you."

Derek stared on, shocked by Simon's blunt reply.

"And also, I like to talk and dad's usually busy, so you're the first person who's been around that I can talk to all the time. Does it bug you?"

"No," Derek said helplessly, "I was just curious."

Another awkward silence strained the air, but now Derek could see that Simon didn't see it as awkward at all—he saw it as a comfortable silence between family. And now Derek understood Simon's motives clearly. But most importantly, Derek felt like part of Simon and Kit's family because he did know Simon and Simon knew him. He felt like he finally belonged somewhere.

So Derek asked confidently, "Do you want to go play some basketball?"

"Sure!" Simon grinned, racing outside to go fetch the ball.

Derek followed without hesitance, eager to play with his new brother.

* * *

**Reviews are appreciated! Thanks.**


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